1/14/15

BEST OF WEEK: STAR WARS #1 — I was fully expecting this to be a couple notches up the ladder from Wood/D’Anda’s recent excellent Dark Horse run that’s basically the exact same concept as this, but man, this is so much better, it’s embarrassing. First of all, those first four pages. HOW has no one ever thought to open a STAR WARS comic that way in the past four decades? Just Death-Star-lasering everything to bits from the get-go. If you’re ever about to spring this issue on someone, it’s a great idea to have Williams’s opening fanfare queued up on your phone or a nearby “CD player” and then when the new reader turns that first page and sees the title, blast that shit in their ear at the exact same instant. I pulled that one on the little girl to tremendous and emphatic success.

But the success of this book of course goes a lot deeper than burning the first four pages to cop the movies’ opening titles. Jason Aaron’s authorial voice disappears in these characters’ dialogue. The 1977 version of the actors all deliver terrific performances in your head. There aren’t really any surprises in terms of plot twists; it’s pretty immediately obvious who’s on that first ship and who the Imperial negotiator is going to be, but that’s just fine. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had in the execution of the narrative. John Cassaday & Laura Martin, no surprise, deliver astounding sequentials throughout, from that first tracking shot from the crawl to gripping action scenes to jawdropping photo-realistic likenesses of the actors that border on the uncanny. I love that by his third page, Darth Vader is levitating Stormtroopers to shield himself from being assassinated by Chewbacca. The body language that Cassaday gives him is ridiculously dynamic and a pleasure to behold.

This first issue does every single thing that it ought to and then some. It’s pretty much perfect; I cannot conceive of a single way in which it is deficient or needs to be improved. I do hope Cassaday/Martin can hang out for longer than three issues this time before taking off like they did on UNCANNY AVENGERS but am of course delighted to get as many pages from them as possible.

JUPITER’S LEGACY #5 — Always worth the wait, this issue continues the trend of being better than what’s come before. Terrific opening scene introducing Major Wolfe and poor doomed Skyscraper. Everything’s tense enough that we’re completely invested in the outcome even though we’ve never seen these people before. It also raises the stakes right away by setting Wolfe up as an adversary who is worthy of our heroes. The deal about the kid tripping up by getting his reflection caught in a raindrop is a smart little detail. Him asking for his mommy to help him really cuts right into you. And what a terrific resolution to the fight. Obviously, Quitely stages the shit out of it. There’s really no one like him, the very best that the industry has to offer. This was a hell of an ending to Book One, and I am certainly looking forward to finding out what happens next. In a couple of years! It’s almost reassuring to know that there’s an in-progress mini-series that’s going to take longer than SANDMAN: OVERTURE to finish up.  

SUPREME: BLUE ROSE #6 — Well, this gorgeously mental thing continues. It’s certainly going to make a fever-dream read in a single sitting. Ellis/Lotay are synergizing to really do a good job of putting the readers in the protagonist’s headspace and making us all feel like we’re slipping over the edge into the shores of madness. I never would have thought that another run could ever step to Moore’s seminal charge through the previous volume of this character’s series almost twenty years ago now, but this not only occupies the same delirious headspace, it challenges what has gone before and attempts to advance the concepts. No small feat. That “Shall we dance?” panel is absolutely gorgeous. And . . . was that Professor Night (or his alter ego) crossing over into the woods where Diana Dane winds up? Is Professor Night the most “Sensational Character Find of 2014?” Or any other year? This series makes my retinas bleed and say thank you.

SAVAGE DRAGON #201 — I dig how Larsen is giving us a frank and even graphic depiction of how much and often teenagers discuss and engage in sexual activity. Rampant! It rings true and is not the kind of thing you see in comics that often, certainly not in the superhero genre. But, he’s listening to his characters. This is exactly how they should be acting. And it’s very impressive how steadily he keeps the ship going, one month after another. That #199 was staggeringly impressive, and he just rolled it into the big anniversary issue, and here we are again, another twenty ad-free pages to the good. Here’s to breaking the all-time record with another hundred issues and then beyond!

ASTRO CITY #19 — The multi-part Quarrel arc continues and keeps delivering in every way we’ve come to expect from this volume of the title. Busiek imbues Jess with a lot of heart, a complex character with ambition and drive while still retaining vulnerability due to the inevitable progression of time. Once again, you kind of wish this could just be the status quo, a book about Quarrel & Crackerjack instead of them just taking centerstage before the spotlight moves on to other players. Brent Anderson delivers perfect sequential work that Alex Sinclair makes pop without calling attention to what an excellent colorist he is. Just another day at the office for these guys.

ALSO BEST OF WEEK: AVENGERS #040 — As much as that crew up top nailed it with our friends from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, it’s impossible not to heap accolades on Hickman and former SECRET WARRIORS collaborator Caselli for the thunder that they drop here, paying off nearly two years of tension that has been masterfully simmered into this world-shattering confrontation. The third flashback scene from months ago with the knife confirms what we’re already pretty much positive, Chekov’s gun and all that, this is definitely going to be used as a murder weapon before we get to the end of this particular $3.99 installment. The only question is whether or not the victim is going to be the intended individual or will that rather resourceful and indeed savage fellow find a way to turn it back on his attacker, which almost seemed more obvious to me. Hickman has so many moving parts and wheels spinning at this point, it would be easy but momentum-killing to fall into the trap of letting the various three Avengers factions square against one another for at least a couple more issues (instead, we get like one page of comic relief, included here because just every other shot worth sharing is a massive spoiler) (Hickman really seems to dig on Bobby & Sam goofing around), but instead, he throttles all the action forward with a plot to strand and murder The Cabal while they save our universe yet again from another incursion. So many heroes betraying that absolute confederation of villains who are doing good. Which is twisted enough before Sue’s “Where’s T’Challa?” Her facial expression during the delivery of that line is perfection. And then that last scene, which I’m not even going to talk about except to say that it was played to perfection and shocking and perfectly timed within the overall span of the series. This moment had to be earned, and it very much was. It was a tremendous surprise to see play out but completely in keeping with all the character motivation and story beats that came before. I kind of wish that first panel on the last page could have gotten its own splash, but even that decision makes sense. The button had already been pushed. This makes my heart heavy and twists up the horrific morally gray space that Hickman has been exploring since the very first issues of his run. A very thought-provoking and intelligent blast of superhero fisticuffs, indeed.

SILVER SURFER #008 — Well, it’s pretty sweet how Slott is developing the relationship between Dawn & Norrin. They’re just a fun couple. And the board figures in there somehow, I guess. The Allreds continue to absolutely burn it down. That first splash of Dawn taking a nap is happening (no mean feat!) and then I really dig it a couple pages later the way that the board’s trail bleeds into the panel borders. Comics are fun! I love Norrin’s, “You people,” that one’s an instant classic. All of that is only preamble, though, for the massive development that fills up the back half of this issue. Slott has done a really good job pacing this thing out, giving us a few early adventures and establishing the status quo before dropping the hammer here with this. This title has only begun to soar through the spaceways.

DAREDEVIL #011 — Another case open and shut. Waid once again keeps it drum-tight, internally consistent with what has gone before while still surprising. Samnee & Wilson keep drawing the hell out of everything. Who doesn’t want to see Matt drive a convertible with his cane in a chase scene with a stunt bike? And, aw. What a sweet last page. Which is probably horrible news for poor Kirsten, if the past thirty-five years have been any indication.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #002 — Ramos brings the heat. I haven’t actually picked up that new MS. MARVEL yet (I know, I know! I don’t like hitting 9/10 on all those Best of Year lists any more than you like seeing it happen), so I didn’t know her power set and found that first super-stretchy shot of her running away delightfully stylistic. And admittedly, I could have paid more attention to the cover. But Waid has this all intelligently constructed. Naturally, the trio of Coulson, Jemma, and Kamala plays very well off each other. So, I guess this is going to be more of a done-in-one anthology type thing pulling different agents and guest starts off the bench at any given time with various A-list artists dropping by? I can hang with that.

BATGIRL #38 — Another just terrific-looking issue with Tarr once again knocking it out over Stewart’s layouts. Cloonan & Fletcher do a nice job pushing several plot elements forward with Dinah condemning Barbara’s newly heightened social media presence, moving out, and singing in a band being just basically background for the tension of the age-old trope of our heroine dating someone on the side of law and order who she really likes but who has got it in for her alter ego. Almost an Anti-Lois Syndrome, really. It’s also a good idea to show that our heroine is fallible and, in fact, really screws up quite badly here. There was never any doubt in my mind, but this run is turning out to definitely have some legs. (ßnot a misogynistic pun)

GRAYSON #6 — And but speaking of legs, dat ass! It’s almost funny how little these guys care about just straight-up objectifying Dick issue after issue. The regular creative team continues to just crush it on this series, which is already racing up near the top of the list of the most reliable top-quality reads of The New 52. Setting Midnighter as the series antagonist is, of course, both a logical and inspired choice that continues to yield terrific fight sequences, but just when we’re getting comfortable with all of that, it’s into shiftship bleedspace? That’s a massive expansion of scope and scale for this series. Our man Agent 37 has come a long way from Bludhaven.

BATMAN ETERNAL #41 — Now, I think Joe Quinones is a hell of an artist. His Green Lantern really stood out of a crowded pack in WEDNESDAY COMICS a few years back. However, he seems to have veered in an even cartoonier direction, and it was an odd fit for this title after all the scratchy gothic linework courtesy of South America that we’ve been getting lately. I adjusted, but it took a bit of time. The sidekicks charging was a good fit in the crowded ensemble for Quinones to tackle. And Harper fiiiiiinally puts on that costume that she had in BATMAN #28. Hey, it only took 41 issues!

FUTURES END #37 — Ha, Amethyst calling Constantine out for being duplicitous and sending an astral projection is a bit hypocritical right after she stabs him. And but Christ, the new Firestorm is just tedious. They cannot have a first page together without expositing the fact that neither one of them is enjoying the current status quo. How many people’s first issue do the writers think this is, at this point? Seems like you should service the folks who are here every week rather than the random people who might pick this up and be the least bit confused by Firestorm being a woman. Otherwise, this one moves along all right. An average issue. So ends the night.